Microstatistics

I'm sure @KawadaSmile is disappointed, but Brazil's match followed the classic wrestling match trope of "Arrogant wrestler becomes complacent and gets caught out by the underdog". A parallel that springs to mind is Liger vs. Sasuke Super J Cup where Liger let his guard down after Sasuke slipped, even after seeing how resilient the underdog was. At least Liger bossed that match, unlike Brazil. They bought into their own hype after the South Korea game and delivered an underwhelming, pigheaded performance that didn't adapt to a organized and composed opponent. The 2018 elimination was much more noble.

Gunther's physical transformation has been pretty impressive. Hope we get Imperium vs. The Bloodline at some point.

Dominik getting Vickie Guerrero-level heat seems to indicate the heel turn was a resounding success.

Stock Up: Antonio Inoki: He is someone who has gone from being a token #100 pick to someone I legitimately consider to be great. High-end technician with an unparalleled presence. Had great matches across 3 decades. Chris Jericho: Looking holistically, he has an impressively diverse and varied career. Strong early runs as the NJPW/WCW youngster and WWE TV worker. Has two career peaks, first during the 2008 heel turn and current 2017 post-WWE renaissance. He is a much stronger heel than face, but is adept at both. Edge: Not a ring general but a very effective worker, particularly in gimmicked settings where his slimy heel tendencies and strong sense of timing were at the forefront. Decent, albeit unremarkable, babyface. Kota Ibushi: Someone I never really watched much of until recently, but he has shot up to my #2 (behind Naito) when it comes to the modern NJPW guys. Great athlete, bumper, offensive wrestler etc. Kurt Angle: He honestly comes off as world-class until 2003 or so when his worst tendencies began to ablate the quality of his performances. Even so, he had great technical stuff vs. Eddie Guerrero 2004 and Samoa Joe 2008. Had a legitimately great match with Shane McMahon. Worked both as a jock bully and a patriotic babyface. Jon Cortez: I used to think he was a little bland, but he is a true technical wizard and could effectively play different shades of a babyface (white-meat technician, clean but highly aggressive competitor) Randy Orton: He can phone it in at times, but is technically solid and has enough high-end output. He is at his best as the sadistic, unhinged heel but his babyface work is not too shabby. In fact, I prefer his understated moments of charisma than the bubbly energy of a lot of babyfaces Stan Hansen: I have been one of his most vocal critics and I even standby most of those criticisms (ate his opponents alive in the 80s, complete disregard for limb selling). But he will make it this time on the strength of his offensive flurries and awareness of his character, factors that played a big role in a number of great matches. The Undertaker: Lots of impressive mini-runs across his career (1996-1998, 2002-2003, 2006-2008), though his true classics occurred during the twilight of his career. Great offense, strikes, and aura. Triple H: Technically sound and highly proficient in gimmick matches. Similar to Edge and Orton, he particularly excelled as a heel, but his 2006-2007 run showed he could be a surprisingly solid babyface. Yumiko Hotta: The crowbar reputation, while earned, undersells her talent and output. The ultra-stiff kicks were there but she was also dependable on the mat and effectively slotted into different roles in singles and tags. Stock Down: Billy Robinson: Footage issues don't help, but his most acclaimed matches available have underwhelmed Black Terry/Negro Navarro: I realized I did a lot of extrapolations from performances in a couple of trios and tags when it came to assessing them. Need a more comprehensive deep-dive, particularly of the 2000s-early 2010s stuff, especially since I found a number of recent Terry brawls pretty underwhelming. Blue Panther: Skilled and effective in multi-man bouts but sorely lacks the resume of the lucha greats Chigusa Nagayo/Devil Masami: Still in contention, but their peers (Lioness Asuka, Yokota) seem to eclipse them once you throw the 90s into the mix. El Dandy: The biggest disappointment for me this time around. His brawling and matwork are merely adequate and his big matches underdeliver. Fit Finlay: A very fun, reliable worker but his ceiling seems to be ***3/4 John Cena: Effective ace with impressive babyface energy, but honestly, when he is not getting mauled by Brock Lesnar, I have no interest in watching him at this point. His formula is incredibly stale, to the point where almost all his big matches are virtually identical. Even many fool-proof gimmick matches are merely decent-good because of his limited offense. Randy Savage: Charismatic and athletic but lacking in great matches. Steamboat, Bret bouts are merely good for me Sangre Chicana: Solid, charming brawler in trios but, aside from the 1989 Satanico classic, actually has a dearth of high-end brawls. Meiko Satomura/Yoshihiro Takayama: The ultimate "great on paper but don't click in practice" wrestlers for me. For Takayama, the Kobashi stuff is great but everything else (including matches from his acclaimed 2002) has been underwhelming. Ditto for Satomura without the benefit of a truly high-end bout like Kobashi 4/25/2004. Nick Bockwinkel/Buddy Rose: Great, versatile wrestlers who will (probably) make it, but their high-end output leaves something to be desired Negro Casas/Rey Mysterio: I briefly talked about them in their respective threads a while back. At this point, if it wasn't for feuds with their greatest rivals, Santo and Eddie Guerrero, respectively, they would have been in serious danger of falling off entirely, something that would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago. Riki Choshu: Can be a dynamic addition to tags and multi-mans and has sound fundamentals but, ultimately, overall match quality is almost entirely contingent on his opponents. Yuki Ishikawa: The more I watch of him, the larger the gap between him and Ikeda seems to grow when it comes to match construction and character.

Jon Cortez vs. Jim Breaks (JP, 2/2) vs. Steve Grey (JP, 7/27)

Brock Lesnar, just on the strength of the WM and Summerslam main events. Sasha Banks, AJ Styles, Kota Ibushi, Roman Reigns round out the Top 5.

This is a surprisingly weak year for wrestling IMO. NJPW is head and shoulders above the rest. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Fujinami and Inoki are one tier down.

Yep, 1984 was Satanico's year. Yoshiaki Fujiwara provides potential competition due to the Super Tiger feud.

I agree with the Misawa pick. Arguably his peak year. Volk Han, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, and Toshiaki Kawada would be the rest of Top 5.

William Regal. The Ohno and Cesaro matches are more than enough.

Kenta Kobashi, bar none. One of the all-time great individual years.

Good comparison. Both have demonstrated proficiency across different settings (AJPW, NJPW, Mid-South vs. M-Pro, various Japanese indies), which is pretty impressive even if I think both are a little overrated around here. I went with Murdoch for his stuff vs. Inoki.

I would counteract the well-written praise by stating that I find Ono to be very one-dimensional. Very strong offensive wrestler, both matwork- and strikes-wise, who could be relied upon to deliver on that front in any given match. But that's about it. His other tangibles were average, he lacked the presence or distinctness of his BattlARTs counterparts, and all his best stuff involves Ikeda maintaining the match structure in some capacity. No chance at my Top 100, despite my affinity for the hybrid style and his involvement in some great tag matches (including my 2009 MOTY).

Great post, Ma Stump Puller. Between his AJPW and UWFi runs, I wouldn't be surprised to see Albright show up on a couple of lists. I agree that his pseudo-shoot style added some freshness to the usual mid-90s AJPW rotations.

He is a pick I used to scoff at but have come around on after giving his most praised work a shot. Seems like a solid 150-101 pick with potential to sneak into the main list. He really hit his stride in 2008 but had strong runs before that as well. I'd rate all these around ***1/2-***3/4 right now, with some other stuff (vs. Undertaker at No Mercy 2008, vs. Roman Reigns 2015 LMS) yet to be checked out vs. Brock Lesnar (WWE, 5/18/2003) vs. Eddie Guerrero (WWE, 4/15/2004) w/ McMahons vs. Shawn Michaels/Triple H (WWE, 9/17/2006) vs. Floyd Mayweather (WWE, 3/30/2008) vs. Mark Henry (WWE, 10/23/2011) --> Best Henry match I've seen vs. Sheamus (WWE, 10/28/2012) vs. Alberto Del Rio (WWE, 1/8/2013) --> Best Alberto match I've seen

It's perfect that Tony Oliver was the representative for this topic because he is the epitome of the wrestler who I would vote for based on just one performance (2/22/1957 vs. Bert Royal). I hope at least one more of his matches shows up and he becomes eligible for a nomination.

I don't agree with the Takayama pick but I totally get it. He was in a lot of high-profile matches that year. Potentially Yuji Nagata. Otherwise, one of the two big newbies, Bryan Danielson and Brock Lesnar.

I'd go with Io Shirai as well. vs. Kairi Hojo (1/17, 9/3) vs. Mayu Iwatani (12/22)

The more I watch of him, the more I am perplexed that he was once painted as a purely workrate guy. His heel act was great and worked in nearly every setting, from NJPW to WoS to Portland. The Fujinami 2/5/1980 and Marty Jones 1/19/1983 matches are major career highlights.

Anyone going to bat for Wanz this time around? Right now, he is on the outside looking in, but I'm impressed with what I've seen from him so far. Effective territory ace who did all the basics well (absorbing a beating, making a fiery comeback, brawling). Three recommended matches vs. Nick Bockwinkel (AWA, 8/29/1982) vs. Sgt. Slaughter (Graz, 7/9/1983) vs. Bull Power (Vienna, 6/30/1990)

I agree with OJ in that he is a much better worker than people say. All in all, I would say he had a respectable career with an impressive resume of strong matches. I feel people here are overly and sometimes unfairly critical of him. Yes, there was the 2002-03 reign of terror, that awful Booker T finish, curbing Orton's first title reign, the pointless Brock feud, the overdrawn promos and self-centered tendencies etc. But on the flip side, he made Batista in 2005, and put over the Shield (thrice), Benoit, Shelton Benjamin, Cena (WM22), Seth Rollins, Bryan, Reigns. He has actually lost a lot of his high-profile matches, especially against younger, up-and-coming talent in an effort to help them get over. Who cares that he beat a 50-year-old Sting?

Man, WM31 really has lightning in a bottle, wasn't it? These two have followed up one of the all-time heavyweight bouts with nothing but poor to mediocre efforts. This was somehow far worse than WM34. Notwithstanding all those ridiculous F-5 kickouts in that match, at least it had a few cool moments, violence, and some resemblance of a structure and story. This was just boring. Nothing but suplex and finisher spamming and a lame, anti-climactic finish. Awful match. *3/4

This was a hoot and a great example of sports entertainment done right. Thanks to Knoxville's documented toughness, the kick-outs made sense without hurting Sami's credibility. On offense, Johnny was of course more limited (though that tornado DDT was cool) and that's where the gimmicky attacks and assistance from his crew came into play. Zayn sold the absurdity of the events well. It wasn't all smokes and mirrors as both took some big bumps too. An impressive achievement. ***1/2

This was a mess. A complete lack of structure coupled with weak, meandering action. Both wrestlers just seemed to be going through the motions. Just when they teased something interesting, for instance Ronda breaking up the Figure 8 by targeting Charlotte's susceptible ankle, they went back into autopilot mode. And all this was before that nonsensical finish. You know things are bad when the referee takes the most memorable bump of the match. **1/4

Great start as they effectively teased the Summerslam 2021 finish. Lynch's initial frustration at being unable to put Belair away immediately was well done. I liked the story of Becky settling into a groove and seemingly having Bianca's number at every turn until Belair fought her way back, leading to a more back and forth finishing stretch. Though, I wish Bianca had shown more urgency during the momentum shift. There were a few rough moments here and there but actually blended well into the hard-fought nature of the match. The match wasn't paced/structured quite as well as Belair's WM match the year prior (but that's a testament to Sasha Banks more than anything), even if the wrestling quality was comparable. Really good stuff overall. ***1/2